Islam in our Backyard

I thought this would be a very timely book review considering the current political climate.

I first read this book while I was at uni due to having a Muslim flatmate in student housing and there being a considerable number of Muslim students on campus.  If you want to get past the media scaremongering and the ignorance of many Christians and read a fairly simple overview of what Muslims actually believe, this is the book for you.  One only has to log into Facebook to read a number of supposed quotes from the Qur'an being 'shared' by Christians.  It made me think....there are plenty of people who misquote the Bible and we, as Christians, encourage them to read it properly, in context.  Shouldn't we do the same with the Qur'an instead of spouting off?

The book is part novel, part non-fiction, and that's where I think it falls down a bit.  I found the whole conversation with the fictitious neighbour a tad cheesy.  I would have much rather just read a book on Islam, explaining the history, the beliefs, the sects etc.  The best bit from the fictitious story was towards the end when he encourages his neighbour to consider the big questions of truth and the impact of pluralism.

I guess there are always going to be people who will refuse to read a book on Islam written by a Christian, using the excuse, "Oh, he's just going to make Muslims look bad."  But isn't a book on Islam written by a Muslim just going to paint Islam favourably?  If you're interested in how much truth there is to Islam being a religion of violent extremists, I would definitely read this book.

You can order this book from the Matthias Media Australian online store here.
Or the US store here.